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Court blocks more of Alabama immigration law

A federal appeals court has temporarily blocked two more sections of a new Alabama law targeting illegal immigration.

The order issued Thursday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit bars enforcement of a provision forbidding state and local governments from engaging in "business transactions" with illegal immigrants and another that instructs state courts not to enforce contracts involving those illegally in the U.S.

The three-judge panel handling lawsuits over the Alabama law offered no detailed rationale for the decision, but said that the federal government and private groups challenging the law had "met their burden" to expand a previously-ordered injunction against other parts of the law, including a requirement for schools to check the immigration status of children.

The limits on the Alabama measure are expected to remain in place until the U.S. Supreme Court rules later this year on a similar Arizona law.

Critics of the Alabama legislation were delighted with the 11th Circuit ruling, while the state government expressed dismay.

"Today’s order brings immediate relief to countless Alabamians whose fundamental rights have been trampled by this anti-immigrant law," Cecilia Wang of the American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement. "These provisions were designed to make it impossible for ordinary families to live in Alabama by stripping them of their ability to engage in contracts – like rental agreements or car leases – and to do any business with the state government. They are unconstitutional and the court rightly blocked them pending a final ruling on the appeal.”

"I strongly disagree with the Eleventh Circuit’s decision today to temporarily enjoin two provisions of the immigration law that the District Court upheld," Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange said in a statement. "I will continue to vigorously defend Alabama’s immigration law in the courts. I am hopeful that the Supreme Court's coming decision in the Arizona case will make clear that our law is constitutional."

The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on the Arizona law on April 25.